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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Cookbook Watch - some fall news

I'm way, way behind on my cookbook reviews, so I'll try to make up for it... first a batch with some books for kids, one for party people, and one by a Desperate Housewife!

Systrarna Eisenmans Mingelmat is written by Lisa & Monica Eisenman, who formerly ran the Cookbook Café in Stockholm. They closed down quite a few years ago, but I still remember that café fondly. Great food, great baked goods, great cookbooks. Since then, they've written several cookbooks - mostly about cakes and cookies, but also a few other ones. This one is ALL about party food of various kinds. And it's truly a bible in its genre, with 565 recpipes for canapés, toasts, mini pizzas and all sort of things. Anyone who likes to throw a party will love this book - and I know I'll use it often. A keeper.

I had no idea Eva Longoria could cook. To me (and I suspect to most people), she's Gaby in Desperate Housewives, and that she actually owns a restaurant was complete news to me. But she does. And she's written a cookbook, too. A nice one! In Eva's Kitchen, she shares her, and her families favorites. What I love is that the food is Tex-Mex - Mexican food, as cooked in Texas. It's fresh, feisty, and much healthier than you might imagine.

Mums för de minsta ("Yum for the smallest"") by Linda Hallberg is a coobook for babies, up to toddlers. It has a lot of nutrition basics, that new parents usually worry quite a bit about, and hands-on recipes for good starter purées as well as tasty food for slightly older and more adventurous eaters.

Laga mat med barn by Karolina Sparring translates to "Cooking with children" but the real aim is "Cooking FOR children", because this is a book that kids (6+) can use on their own. It's nicely laid out and attractive, and my only fault with it is that the recipes themselves aren't all that exciting. However, I realize that for most families, that's not much of an issue.

4 comments:

Is Eva's cookbook full of photos or does it only have the recipes? Sounds like a nice one, but I have to be able to see the final product in a photo before I set out to recreate it. ;) Also, did you get it in Stockholm? Or order it online?

Chelsey, it has tons of photos! Maybe not of every single dish, but most of them. I doubt it can be found in Stockholm, online is much radier and generally cheaper. I buy almost all my books - English ones -at Amazon UK.

GREAT reviews Anne. I'm especially attracted to that first one by Lisa & Monica Eisenman. I once had a cookbook store that was also a cafe in a small Victorian town in Pennsylvania. I'll need to add that to my wish list file.